1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a lens apparatus diagnostic system, a diagnostic program, a record medium, a lens diagnostic system and a controller diagnostic system, and in particular, to a technology for diagnosing a lens apparatus and a controller with a computer such as a personal computer.
2. Description of the Related Art
TV lenses having a function of self-diagnosing the items such as a zoom lens, a focus lens, an iris, an extender and a power-supply voltage have been known so far. Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 7-264449 discloses a TV lens of this type, which is constituted by externally mounting a dedicated substrate for self-diagnosis on the TV lens as an option. The dedicated substrate has switches to be operated for performing the diagnosis, an A/D converter, an D/A converter, a storage device such as an ROM having a self-diagnostic program stored therein, a central processing unit (CPU) for diagnosing the items of the lens apparatus according to an input signal from the above described switches and a self-diagnostic program, and an interface such as RS232C for having diagnostic results displayed on an external personal computer and so on.
In addition, so far, there has been a known lens system which, on operating an operating member of a controller connected to the lens apparatus, a movable optical element of the lens apparatus such as the zoom lens or focus lens for instance is motor-driven to have a position or a speed corresponding to the setup position of the operating member. For instance, a zoom controller has a thumb ring which returns to a reference position in the case of no operation provided thereto, and a zoom speed changes according to an amount of operations from the reference position of the thumb ring.
There are the following problems as to the above-mentioned lens diagnostic system.
(1) There is a problem that, if the dedicated substrate for self-diagnosis is added to the lens apparatus, the lens apparatus becomes expensive and also becomes complicated and large-size. While a box-type TV lens for studio use and live telecast of sports is large enough to add the dedicated substrate, an ENG (Electric News Gathering) lens of a shouldered type used for news report is required to be lightweight and compact so that it has no self-diagnostic function because of no space for adding the dedicated substrate.
(2) When the above-mentioned zoom controller has the thumb ring set up at the reference position (in the case of no operation), a control signal of a determined center voltage (value) is sent to the lens apparatus, and an offset adjustment is made so that a zoom is not driven in the case of that center voltage. However, there are the cases where an error or an abnormality arises in the zoom controller, the drive member of the zoom, or other signal processing circuits (amplifier circuit and so on), and there is a possibility of occurrence of a problem that the zoom moves in spite of no operation of the thumb ring.
The lens diagnostic system in the past do not perform such a diagnosis of an offset so that, in the case where the above-mentioned problem occurs, it can recognize the abnormality but cannot identify the portion in which the abnormality is arising, and thus repair and adjustment thereof takes time and effort.
(3) In the case of having the diagnostic results displayed on an external personal computer and so on, it is possible to store the diagnostic results on a floppy disk, a hard disk and so on. To store the diagnostic results, however, it is necessary for an operator to specify a file name and a storage place, which is trouble. In addition, there is a problem that, if the operator changes, the storage place becomes unknown and so it becomes impossible to know when the diagnoses were performed in the past and the results thereof.
(4) The self-diagnosis in the past has a fault that it cannot diagnose an accessory (controller) connected to the TV lens and cannot know the abnormality of the controller even when there is one.